Offshore well i read what you have found and it makes for an interesting argument and a lawsuit against Fender for false advertising , so who going to run with it? haha
yeah 120db's is just a tic statement but people try and tell you a guitar in full flights tone is affected by paint finish which is rubbish. Like me your an old schooler and what we used to play was what we grabbed off the shelf and just played the bloody thing. Before the net most of this BS was just that.
Timbers by themselfs with whatever finish you like only show a small difference acoustically unplugged when shown on a graph depicting sound of highs mids and lows, but once you plug in its a whole new world with the pickups being the heart and soul of your sound, then the strings then the hardware then the electrics then the timbers IMHO. Forget the voodoo and the mojo that people attatch to guitars. Every piece of wood has a different sound, every piece of wood has its own entity. I gave up on this is better and thats a better finish. I purchase by looks and then adjust accordingly.
My Highway1 body after 12 months is in worse condition wear wise than my mid 90's ASAT and the ASAT has had the nuts played out of it for over 15yrs. My next guitar will have a tru oil finish for 2 reasons 1: its an easy finish to apply and 2 they say the necks play superb. I got a satin nitro finish on my Warmoth neck on the strat because to me satin finishs play better than gloss and nothing to do with perceived sounds.
I love playing old pieces of junk that the music snobs turn their noses up at i can alway get a great sound out of these things even if its only one sweet spot.
Too much BS because of marketing in music, the pickup makers are probably some of the worst at it for false claims. I have heard some cheap pups knock the top liners off their perchs. I will start winding my own pups in the new year as i used to do in the 70's and 80's because i am sick of the overpriced rubbish some of the people have the gall to put out. Scatter widing vs machine widing for instance, alnico magnets etc (the magnets do change tone as does the wire and the windings and the amount of windings etc), old Leo used to wind with what he could get, Cobalt was hard to come by back then. Leo used the cheapest most available paints, timbers and Alnico he could find, not because this or that finish wise made the guitar a better player so some early strats may have had Alnico 2 magnets or Alnico 5 etc etc. There are some very good winders out there who make great pups but theres too much voodoo and BS associated with the industry.
Back to the timbers and finish, i like in no particular order
Swamp Ash
Alder
Mahogony heavier and a little warmer than the 2 above
the finish well you can shoot whatever you like on it as long as it loooks good
